The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has fined Moody’s Deutschland GmbH (Moody’s Germany) €750,000 (£651,500) and Moody’s Investors Service Limited (Moody’s UK) €490,000 (£427,500), and issued a public notice, for two negligent breaches of the European Union's Credit Rating Agencies Regulation (CRAR).

ESMA found that Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK negligently contravened the regualtion in respect of their public announcement of certain ratings and their public disclosure of the methods they were using to determine those ratings. These failures concern nineteen ratings issued between June 2011 and December 2013 for nine supranational entities including the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund, the European Stability Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Union.

ESMA is enraged at what it calls a "ratings presentation infringement" by the credit rating agency. The public announcement of the nineteen ratings issued by Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK between June 2011 and December 2013 included no other material sources of  public information than press releases. These failed to indicate the principal methods used for Moody's decisions about the ratings and failed to refer to any comprehensive descriptions of the methods being used. ESMA also accuses Mooday's of a "methodology disclosure infringement," claiming that the methods used in each of the nineteen ratings was not the subject of any separate public disclosure either before or after the public rating announcements. This infringement continued for more than six months.

The quality of credit rating methods, together with their full and timely public disclosure is a vital objective of the CRAR. The disclosure of methods forms an integral part of the rating process because it allows investors and market participants to find out whether issued ratings are sound and reliable.

Moody’s Germany and Moody’s UK may appeal against the decision.